LONDON, Ont., – In the week before Christmas, a 58-year-old pharmacist, Egyptian immigrant and devout Roman Catholic named Michael Haddad had his quarter-million-dollar bid accepted to purchase a recently shuttered United Church in Hensall, Ont. Haddad’s sole reason for making this purchase is so that this town of 1,200 situated about an hour’s drive north of London will not lose its last remaining Christian church.

Welfare reforms that leave a big gap between the poverty line and being poor enough to receive benefits could end up forcing Church charities to make up the difference for thousands of disabled and marginally employable Ontarians.

The rumours have been swirling through the halls of the Toronto Catholic District School Board that a more lean fiscal future will be the new reality, and a late Friday afternoon e-mail from the provincial government Dec. 14 did nothing to allay those fears.

The title of family caregiver implies the act of giving care to loved ones with acute or chronic health issues. What it fails to convey is the importance of caregivers receiving care themselves — and that’s aproblem, according to a new study.

Catholic schools in Vancouver have come to Toronto shopping for young, ambitious and faithful Catholic teachers who want to trade supply teaching assignments for a permanent contract and a classroom of their own.